Case Study

How a custom app can maximize efficiency

Our client featured in the case studyis a word-class distributor of industrial hoses, bearings, power transmissions, and rubber products. They also fabricate customized conveyor belts, as well as design and assemble hydraulic industrial hoses—among an assortment of other conveyor drive design work.

Perhaps one of the more rigorous aspects of our client's business model is their comprehensive inspection service, in which their team of experienced technicians conduct an on-site checkup to be sure that systems are running at peak potential.

Before working with Beloved Robot, inspections consisted of lengthy paperwork, which ate up a significant amount of technicians’ time. Our goal was to design an app that could streamline the inspection process, freeing up our client's highly-trained staff to concentrate on what they did best—getting the job done—and ultimately, boost their revenue overall.

From “pain point” to opportunity

Like all Beloved Robot projects, we began with a Discovery Phase. That meant lacing up our steel toe boots and visiting work sites, seeking out valuable input from technicians in the field. After getting a sense of their daily challenges, we spoke with business stakeholders to get insight into their business practices, and to better understand where there was room for innovation.

Once the research was complete, we locked ourselves in a room with a whiteboard, funneling our ideas through four years of experience building apps. When the brainstorm was over, we had a blueprint for an inspection app that was meticulously calibrated to the workflow a technician performed. We focused on efficiency, removing the need for manual reentry of data, which allowed a technician complete control over how they wanted to approach the inspection.

In essence, the app empowered their team to do work the way that made the most sense to them, which gave them heightened freedom and flexibility.

Doing what we do best

The app took four months to design, develop, and beta test. Once the finished product reached our client's technicians, the company saw a vast increase in efficiency—where before it had taken nine technicians to perform inspections, now it took only three.

That left six skilled workers to focus their attention on simply completing jobs, effectively tripling company efficiency. The extra facetime with clients also boosted sales, as it gave technicians a chance to better explain the products and services that our client had to offer.